As everyone else is saying, it's all relative. Your typical hard, fast group ride is pretty fast if you're a recreational rider. I did one of these a few times last summer. I got dropped off the back so fast I thought I might be tied down. I consider that a fast ride.

Then I trained all winter and raced this spring. I came back last Thursday, and suddenly I was one of the four fastest guys out there that night (smallish group!). And it definitely hurt, but I remembered the races I'd done earlier that spring, pounding up hills with nothing in the tank whatsoever, knowing that as bad as this is, it's only to be worse in two laps when the race hasn't only just gotten started. Starting a climb in third wheel and finishing thirty places back on that third lap. Trying to get out of the saddle to sprint for the line only to discover that even that last bit of effort is too much to ask. Being pulled from a criterium with twelve laps to go because the race leader has lapped the field. Solo. After that, fast is a little bit different. If you aren't struggling just to survive it's not fast.

But really? If you can ride over 22 mph solo on the flat for an extended period of time, that's plenty fast for a recreational rider. A racer might not be impressed, but the only people who should worry about what racers think are other racers. And usually not even them.